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Sakhir (Bahrain), Nov 15 (IANS)
Mathias Lauda, son of racing legend Niki Lauda, won the MRF Challenge at the Bahrain International Circuit on Saturday.
Lauda held off a late challenge from South African driver Kyle Mitchell to win from start to finish while GP3 driver Ryan Cullen continued his great run of form to win his second win of the weekend in Race 1.
Toby Sowery continues to lead the championship in spite of not winning this weekend with Cullen second and Raj Bharath and Kyle Mitchell in joint third.
In the first race of the day, Cullen led from the start with Bharath in second place. There was chaos behind as Vinicius Paparelli nudged Tarun Reddy, who hit Vikash Anand and sent both Indians crashing.
At the front, Mitchell had a great start and was up to third, putting pressure on Bharath. Cullen pulled away comfortably to lead by over five seconds with Mitchell finally getting past Bharath on Lap 6.
Bharath lost another place when Sowery passed up on the next lap to take third place. Cullen held on for a comfortable win with Mitchell finishing second and Sowery third ahead of Bharath.
The second race saw Lauda leading into the first corner ahead of Paparelli with Sowery in a close third. Sowery passed Paparelli on Lap 2 but lost out to him on the fourth lap with an intense battle between the two.
Safety car came out on Lap 2 after Lee Keshav collided with Freddie Hunt, who was pushed into a spin. Tarun Reddy, who started from the back, moved up to ninth when the safety car came out.
Reddy took advantage of the restart and got past Cullen and Paparelli to move into fifth position on Lap 4, behind Bharath. Bharath got past Sowery to take third place with Reddy following him through. However, Reddy was forced to retire after his engine cover came off.
Lauda crossed the finish line to win ahead of Mitchell and Bharath while Sowery finished fourth, followed by Kaminsky.
The MRF Challenge heads to Chennai for the final round Jan 24-25. Sowery leads the championship with 141 points with Cullen (126) second while Mitchell and Bharath joint third with 112.
The results:
Race 3: Ryan Cullen (GBR) 1, Kyle Mitchell (RSA) 2, Toby Sowery (GBR) 3. Race 4: Mathias Lauda (AUS) 1, Kyle Mitchell (RSA) 2, Raj Bharath (IND) 3.
